A win always seems shallow: it is the loss that is so profound and suggests nasty infinities.
—E.M. Forster, 1919
Archive
Quotes
Once something becomes discernible, or understandable, we no longer need to repeat it. We can destroy it.
—Robert Wilson, 1991The fear of the Lord is true wisdom, and he who hath it not can in no way penetrate the true secrets of magic.
—Abraham the Jew, c. 1400A bull contents himself with one meadow, and one forest is enough for a thousand elephants; but the little body of a man devours more than all other living creatures.
—Seneca the Younger, c. 64All people have the common desire to be elevated in honor, but all people have something still more elevated in themselves without knowing it.
—Mencius, c. 330 BCTo lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.
—Simone de Beauvoir, 1949Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962Memory is more indelible than ink.
—Anita Loos, 1974Kings and fools know no law.
—German proverbNo woman needs intercourse; few women escape it.
—Andrea Dworkin, 1978A brilliant boxing match, quicksilver in its motions, transpiring far more rapidly than the mind can absorb, can have the power that Emily Dickinson attributed to great poetry: you know it’s great when it takes the top of your head off.
—Joyce Carol Oates, 1987Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, c. 1940Men, my dear, are very queer animals—a mixture of horse nervousness, ass stubbornness, and camel malice.
—T. H. Huxley, 1895